Achille Lemot

Uzès, Lilio

(31 December 1846 - 20 September 1909, France)

Almanach du Pèlerin (1925)

Achille Lemot, born Désiré Achille Valentin, was a French illustrator, who also worked under pen names like Uzès and Lilio. Educated in art by André Gill and at the Reims college. He has illustrated the works of among others Charles Leroy (about Le Colonel Ramollot) and was present in several French magazines of his time, including Monde Pour Rire, Journal Amusant, Monde Comique, La Suprise, L'Éclipse, La Scie, Le Frou Frou, Courrier Français and Le Noël, Journal des Enfants.

story from Le Chat Noir

Especially his caricature cover illustrations for Monde Pour Rire earned him the nickname "Lemot Pour Rire". Between 1882 and 1886, as Uzès, he was working for Le Chat Noir, for which he drew several wordless pages with sequential art, alongside the work of artists like Caran d'Ache, Steinlen, Gillette, Heidbrinck and Poitevin.

Almanach du Pèlerin (1925)

Lemot was one of the main illustrators of the magazine Le Pèlerin of the publishing house Bonne Presse from 1884 until his death in 1909. He illustrated a great many covers, tales and comic pages. Lemot's importance for the magazine is evident when, in a 1932 sketch by Gignoux, Le Pèlerin's artist team of the time is introduced as "the successors of Lemot." Presented are Gignoux, Damblans, Brousset, Grand'Aigle, Cip, Moritz, Fournier and LeCoultre.

Les Renards et les Dindons (Almanach du Pèlerin 1925)

Besides an illustrator, Lemot is also known for his exploits as a forger. In order to keep up with the expensive wishes of his mistress, theatre actress Augustine-Reine Attagnant, he falsified 20 franc bills of the Banque de France, for which he was eventually sentensed to 10 years of reclusion. The story of Lemot inspired Alphonse Daudet for his 1884 novel 'Sapho'.